2010 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Winner for Fiction

Waverly Shaw is a down-on-his-luck lawyer who stumbles upon a potentially lucrative business. But as the stakes get higher, he is unwittingly drawn into a perilous web of greed, blackmail, and murder. …More

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2010 Black Caucus of the American Librarian Association Winner for Non-Fiction

Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding light on the impact of Barack Obama's presidential victory and offering profiles of prominent leaders such as Deval Patrick and Cory Booker as well as up-and-coming African-American politicians. …More

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2008 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Winner for Fiction

Two lesser characters from Carter's bestselling first novel, "The Emperor of Ocean Park"--husband and wife Lemaster and Julia Carlyle--take center stage in this compelling, literate page-turner that blends a gripping whodunit with complex discussions of politics and race in contemporary America. …More

2008 Black Caucus of the American Librarian Association Winner for Non-Fiction
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The first scholar to be given complete access to Ralph Ellison's papers provides a glimpse not only into the events of Ellison's life, but also into the complex inner makeup of the man--a magisterial biography of the writer and his times. …More

2008 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Winner for First Novelist

Exploring issues of self-esteem, family discord, sisterhood, faith, and subtle discrimination in the workplace, this novel is not just an upscale urban tale for the black professional but an absorbing story for all readers. Following the life of the young, beautiful attorney Remi as she seeks Mr. Right, her life and the lives of her neighbors in an apartment building nicknamed "The Rise" intertwine against the backdrop of Washington DC. Lies, heartache, and broken bonds abound, challenging the characters to go beyond the superficial in life's journeys. …More

Winner - 2007 ALA Black Caucus Award
When a police officer pulls over a young man for driving without his headlights on, he mistakes the man's cellphone for a gun and fatally shoots him. The officer descends through a maze of self-recrimination and shame; his wife and children leave him; and he struggles to put his life back together after the life-altering mistake. …More

Winner - 2006 ALA Black Caucus Award
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Three African-American women's lives in the 1970s are portrayed in stunning detail in Southgate's second novel. It's up to the granddaughter to heal the rift between her mother and grandmother as the trio struggles against all odds to express what lies deepest in their hearts. …More

Winner - 2005 ALA Black Caucus Award
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This riveting tale of tragedy and hope set in late sixties Philadelphia is from an author who "ought to be classified among the best of all contemporary fiction writers period" ("Detroit Free Press"). …More

Winner - 2004 ALA Black Caucus Award
From the bestselling author of "Sally Hemings" comes an extraordinary novel based on the true story of Sarah Baartman, an African bushwoman exhibited as a "scientific curiosity" in the capitals of nineteenth-century Europe. …More

Winner - 2003 ALA Black Caucus Award
The critically acclaimed author of "Voodoo Dreams" brings to life the fortunes of two actual 19th-century women who fell in love with the legendary Frederick Douglass. Against a background marked by a burgeoning women's rights movement, the disastrous raid on Harper's Ferry, and the Civil War, "Douglass' Women" is an unforgettable epic full of heartache and triumph. …More

Winner - 2002 ALA Black Caucus Award
A poignant new novel of love and risk features the same characters of the bestselling "What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day". This time, Ava's big sister, Joyce, will shine when she senses the unmistakable hint of romance on the wind. …More

Winner - 2001 ALA Black Caucus Award
Hailed as "one of our finest American novelists" ("San Francisco Chronicle"), the author of "Brown Girl, Brownstones" returns with a moving and revelatory story of jazz, love, family conflict, and the artist's struggles in society. …More

Winner - 2000 ALA Black Caucus Award
An insightful, poignant story of family ties unraveling and lost loves regained, this novel follows the trials of the Hutchinson family and their individual quests for true love. And in the end, everyone learns that when it comes to living life to the fullest, it ain't nobody's business how one goes about it. …More

Winner - 1999 ALA Black Caucus Award
Harlan Jane Eagleton is a faith healer, traveling by bus to small towns, converting skeptics, restoring minds and bodies. But before that she was a minor rock star's manager, and before that a beautician. She's had a fling with her rock star's ex-husband and an Afro-German horse dealer; along the way she's somehow lost her own husband, a medical anthropologist now traveling with a medicine woman in Africa. Harlan tells her story from the end backwards, drawing us constantly deeper into her world and the mystery at the heart of her tale - the story of her first healing. The Healing is a lyrical and at times humorous exploration of the struggle to let go of pain, anger, and even love. Slipping seamlessly back through Harlan's memories in a language rich with the textured cadences of the black Southerner, Gayl Jones weaves her story to its dramatic - and unexpected - beginning. …More